


Bird Born for Joy

by Demi_Fae



Series: Whumptober 2020 [4]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Mentions of sexual slavery, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:49:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26744662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Demi_Fae/pseuds/Demi_Fae
Summary: Ahsoka remembered being forced into a cage on the Kadavo mission. She remembered dangling over a high drop, with large animals shaking the cage trying to get to her. Her cage was secure- and when did it becomehercage instead ofthecage?-  but that didn’t stop her heart from pounding at every movement.She’d tried to stay calm and meditate, remembering the lessons she’d been taught as an initiate and later as a padawan by Master Kenobi. Cross-legged in an easy and comfortable position, hands resting lightly on her knees, focusing on breathing. Letting everything go to listen to the Force and feel it flow around, in, and through everything.But eventually her thoughts drifted to that which she had been avoiding. The auction.-Day 4:Caged| Buried Alive | Collapsed Building
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker
Series: Whumptober 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1930612
Comments: 10
Kudos: 52





	Bird Born for Joy

**Author's Note:**

> How can the bird that is born for joy  
> Sit in a cage and sing?  
> How can a child, when fears annoy,  
> But droop his tender wing,  
> And forget his youthful spring?  
> -William Blake, Songs of Innocence and Experience
> 
> (I'll be real with you here, I didn't know this guy until I looked up quotes about caged birds and thought the line sounded cool)

Ahsoka remembered being forced into a cage on the Kadavo mission. She remembered dangling over a high drop, with large animals shaking the cage trying to get to her. Her cage was secure- and when did it become _her_ cage instead of _the_ cage?- but that didn’t stop her heart from pounding at every movement. 

She’d tried to stay calm and meditate, remembering the lessons she’d been taught as an initiate and later as a padawan by Master Kenobi. Cross-legged in an easy and comfortable position, hands resting lightly on her knees, focusing on breathing. Letting everything go to listen to the Force and feel it flow around, in, and through everything. 

It had been so hard to concentrate with the shrieking of the animal and the guards’ comments. 

_‘The queen has promised once the other Jedi is tamed you will be mine, little skug.’_

Even now the memory sent shivers down her spine. Throwing him over the edge of the balcony- though she hadn’t killed him- had been satisftying, no matter the electrocution she’d received for it. 

Their casual leering had been a constant she’d grown far too used to far too soon. Their gazes over every bit of exposed skin and smirking voices were pushed to the back of her mind before too long. She rarely reacted after the first few punishments and tried to let their words wash off her back. 

Sinking deeper into meditation Ahsoka would try to reach across her bonds with Anakin and Obi-Wan to see how they were doing. Obi-Wan was too far away to hear even the faintest of echoes, but Ahsoka liked to pretend that she still could every once in a while. That his warmth would wrap around her in the middle of the night, far more protection than her thin pleasure slave outfit afforded her. 

Anakin was much closer than Obi-Wan and yet still so far away. He’d try to respond every once in a while, pushing images of being paraded about as the queen’s pet Jedi. Flights with the queen against his back and bile in his mouth. Ahsoka would send back her cold nights and guards’ words, and a question. _When._

_Not yet._

It left Ahsoka with nothing to do but meditate, sleep, conserve energy, and plan. She was too antsy to continue meditating after a time and her sleep was restless. There was nothing to do to get rid of her extra energy and there was very little to plan for other than how to incapacitate the guards. One could only imagine so many ways to knock a person out or kill them before they became bored. So Ahsoka thought. 

She remembered what she’d seen behind the queen’s throne. Being treated as a slave had been- new. She’d been briefed on how to act, what she would go through, but actually experiencing it was new. The slave who had thrown herself off the roof- Ahsoka couldn’t imagine what would push one to do that, before. But now, experiencing this for years? Her whole life? She understood, and she wished she didn’t. 

Eventually Ahsoka’s thoughts drifted to that which she had been avoiding. The auction. 

It’d been a shock to both Ahsoka and Anakin to learn that Obi-Wan had been captured. He was one of the greatest Jedi- how could he have been defeated? And yet there he was. Kneeling, bloody and bruised, with a collar around his neck- not unlike the one around her own. 

And the ultimatum- choose one to live? Obi-Wan or the twi’lek? 

Ahsoka immediately thought about Artoo holding their sabers. Maybe they could get them from the little droid, fight their way out of the arena, escape and find another way to recover the togruta- too late, and Ahsoka was being held back. Artoo off to her side was incapacitated and claws dug into Ahsoka's throat as voices whispered the horrible things they'd do to her if she struggled. All there was left to do was try to ignore them with tears in her eyes and watch her master try to come up with a third option. 

Ahsoka didn’t know what ‘the right’ answer was. She didn’t think there was one. Either way a life would be lost. It would be Obi-Wan’s, her grandmaster, her second master in all but name- or it would be an innocent life, a girl not much older than Ahsoka, with her own family and friends. 

The perfect Jedi maybe might have chosen to save the innocent life. They were sworn to protect as many lives as they could and to focus on the greatest good for the most people. Sometimes that meant giving your own life up- but to sacrifice another? And if the one you were going to kill could go on to save more than the person completely uninvolved? 

Ahsoka didn’t know what she would have chosen, just that she was thankful it wasn’t her who had been given the choice. 

She remembered waiting for Anakin to choose one or the other, and hearing their screams as he took too long to decide. Electricity coursing through their veins- and now Ahsoka knew how it felt, too. Another thing to tie their trio together: the Lichtenberg Figures decorating their skin. 

Seconds later- _only a few minutes long, how was it that short, it felt like hours-_ and Anakin had made his choice. Ahsoka remembered watching Obi-Wan relax like he expected to be killed, only to snap his head up as he lived. 

Ahsoka never felt more disgusted with herself than she was in that moment, to see another being’s blood as it guaranteed the life of one she cared about. 

She screwed her eyes shut as tightly as she could and shook her head as if it would rid herself of the memory. She wanted to think of something, anything else- Her fellow padawans, the clones, battles, anything- yet she couldn’t. 

Nothing erased the image of bright red blood staining sand, her master standing as still as the corpse beneath him, and Obi-Wan looking as desolate as she’d ever seen. 

**Author's Note:**

> I do realize that this isn't as much about Ahsoka being caged, but,,,,, oh well? 
> 
> You can yell at me on tumblr at [rynae-reblogs](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/rynae-reblogs)


End file.
